Afghan women and girls

Today #internationalwomensday, my full solidarity, appreciation, respect, and empathy are with the women and girls in Afghanistan and those who are exiled.

Nothing has moved me more in recent years than hearing the stories of courageous women risking their lives to provide education and opportunities to women and girls in Afghanistan.

We have cried together, we have kept silent when the pain was too much to say or do anything, and we have fueled the desire to keep fighting injustice and unfairness.

I have held space, made it safe, and gained their trust so that they could speak about their unique stories. The only way for me to do that was by being authentic, transparent, and vulnerable.

These brave women and girls have taught me much and challenged me. Listening to their journeys made me more conscious of my privileges—all of them.

I present myself as a Citizen of the World. Such privilege has been shattered by testimony from somebody who said, “I feel I don’t have the right to be from anywhere. Even if I was born and grew up here, all my rights are suppressed, as a woman, as a person from an ethnic and faith minority, as a human being.”

Today, I’m using another privilege, the access to an audience here on the internet, to visualize women and girls' struggles in Afghanistan and those in exile.

In solidarity with them.

Silence is not an option.

*****

How do I know these women?

I’m currently involved in a scoping exercise to understand the struggles faced by human rights activists in hostile environments where the civil space is shrinking daily and to find new directions/ideas for them to continue their fundamental jobs that societies need.